Smile, Coraline
by Lela Penn
Summary: A new family moves into the home that formerly belonged to the Lovats. Coraline Jones befriends the two kids, Jeffrey and Liu Woods, but things soon begin to go downhill. Now Coraline has more threats to face: her friend who is now a psychotic killer, and the creature who contributed to this change.


_**A/N: Hey guys! So, I was looking through my old Fanfiction account a while back and I saw this Coraline/Creepypasta fanfic that I wrote when I was maybe... 12 or 13? Not sure and I'm too lazy to go look at the date I published it, haha. But anyway, I thought it might be fun to redo that fic and make it a bit more serious and not include any shipping or anything like that. Plus I'm trying to get my creativity flowing so I figured that re-writing an old story might be good for that. :) Anyway, here's hopin' that this turns out decently!**_

Wybie's Departure

Coraline stood beside her best friend, Wybie Lovat, in his front yard, watching as men loaded cardboard boxes filled with various belongings into the back of a moving van. The black cat who had served as their friend and guardian of sorts stood beside Wybie, having a demeanor that implied he was just as sad about this as the children were.  
"It doesn't seem real..." Wybie said, breaking the long, awkward silence that had filled the air for the past ten minutes. "None of it does..."  
Coraline's eyes shifted from the tall man carrying a box labeled "CLOTHES" to her friend, who seemed to be staring ahead at nothing in particular. She hated seeing him like this. She hated the fact that his grandmother had died. She hated that he was forced to go live with his aunt and uncle in another state, after the couple had chosen to sell the house and the apartments. She hated everything about this situation.  
"No... It doesn't," she agreed, her eyes now fixed on an anthill directly in front of her feet. "I'm sorry about all of this..."  
"Don't be, Jonesy, it's not your fault," Wybie answered, trying his best to sound positive, despite the fact that he was depressed and angry. Cat nudged the boy's leg with his head in a comforting gesture; he was unable to go with him, since Hazel (Wybie's aunt) was allergic to cats. While Cat was relieved that he wouldn't have to deal with those two annoying humans who were now Wybie's caretakers, and that he could still be around Coraline, he certainly was going to miss the boy who had fed him and to whom he had brought gifts for so long.  
"I'm gonna miss you too," the boy said with a small smile, leaning down and gently petting the feline, who purred slightly in response.  
"Don't get cat hair on your clothes, Wyborne!" Hazel called out as she carried a box into the van. "You know I'm allergic!"  
"Sorry, Aunt Hazel..." Wybie said halfheartedly. Coraline gave the woman a glare (that she didn't see, since she now had her back turned to the kids) before putting a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder.  
"You've still got my phone number, right?" she asked.  
"Yeah, of course I do," Wybie said. "Heh, remember how you almost slapped me when I put you in my contacts?"  
"Because you made my name 'Water Witch'," Coraline replied with a grin. The two chuckled a little before their smiles slowly faded back into frowns. They didn't know it, but they were thinking of the same memories they'd made over the past three years. The time that they put banana slugs all over a local bully's backpack. The bike races up and down dirt paths that were often muddy due to frequent rainfall in the summer. Last Halloween, when they dressed as vampires and managed to scare the living daylights out of Coraline's dad by hiding behind his desk and jumping out as he entered. Times where they'd go camping in Wybie's backyard and trace out silly constellations in the stars. Even moments where they just silently enjoyed each other's company, each of them doing their own thing, reading or writing or drawing monsters or whatever.  
Despite what many of their classmates thought, the two didn't have romantic feelings for one another; but they did love each other, in a platonic sort of way. They had been inseparable ever since Wybie helped Coraline defeat the Beldam once and for all. But now, they were being forced to separate. And it hurt. A lot.  
The back of the van was being closed. It was almost time to leave.  
"Don't take too long, Wyborne, we're burning daylight here," his uncle, Joe, said as he walked past the two friends and to his truck. Coraline and Wybie turned to face one another, after the former gave the latter's uncle a sharp glare similar to the one she'd directed at his aunt. She knew that these two would take care of Wybie; they weren't bad people. She just didn't like them, even though she knew it wasn't their fault they had to take her friend away from her.  
"I... Guess this is it," Wybie said as Coraline looked back at him with a softer expression.  
"I guess so," she replied, feeling a burning sensation in her throat that implied she was going to cry soon.  
"I'm going to miss you, Coraline," her friend said, holding out his hand for her to shake. She took it lightly, but didn't perform the handshake; it didn't feel right. So she pulled her hand away and hugged him tightly; there weren't any classmates around to misinterpret this as romance and tease them for it, but even if there were she wouldn't have cared. This departure deserved more than just a handshake.  
Wybie seemed a bit shocked at first, but he quickly returned the hug.  
"I'm going to miss you, too..." Coraline said. "You take care of yourself, ya here?"  
"You too," Wybie answered. The two pulled away and looked at one another with sad smiles.  
"I promise I'll message you as much as I can," the boy promised.  
"Right back atcha," Coraline replied.  
"Wyborne!" his uncle called from the front seat of his pickup truck, honking the horn and causing the kids to jump in alarm and the cat to hiss, showing his teeth at the vehicle.  
"... See ya, Jonesy," Wybie said, walking towards the car and petting Cat one last time. "Bye, Cat. Take care of Coraline for me, yeah?"  
The cat nodded once.  
"Bye, Why-Were-You-Born," Coraline responded, waving goodbye as he climbed into the back seat. His aunt and uncle waved at the blue-haired girl as well, as they backed out of the driveway and onto the dirt path leading to the main road. She watched as the moving van drove after them, blocking her view of the boy who was staring out of the back window at her. And once both vehicles were out of sight... Once she knew she wasn't being watched by anyone but her animal companion, she burst into tears, falling on her knees. Cat looked at her sadly, climbing on her lap and nuzzling his face against her cheek, trying his best to comfort the girl.  
"It isn't fair, Cat, it isn't fair..." she murmured. "He was the only real, human friend I had here and now he's gone..."  
Cat couldn't speak to her here, but he sincerely wished that he could. For now, he settled for remaining on her lap as she let out the sad/angry sobs she'd been holding back all morning.

* * *

Two days had passed since Wybie had left, and Coraline had only gotten two messages.  
First:  
 **hey, jonesy. i won't be able to text you a lot until i get to aunt hazel's and uncle joe's. they don't like it when i'm on my phone instead of "checking out the scenery". i'll text you again ASAP.  
** And then:  
 **don't forget to give Cat tuna today. he likes having tuna on tuesdays.  
** Coraline hadn't given very long replies. Just a simple sentence wishing him safe travels and a promise to feed Cat tuna. A promise she was currently fulfilling, carrying an open can of tuna with her over to the edge of the woods just outside of the fence surrounding the Lovat's old place.  
"Cat!" Coraline called. "I brought tuna! Wybie said you'd want it!"  
The cat wasn't at his usual feeding area, but that wasn't unusual; he didn't really have much of a schedule, he just sort of wandered wherever he pleased and came to eat when he was good and ready to.  
After holding the can upside down and shaking it a little, the tuna plopped into the old plastic take-out box they used as Cat's food bowl. Then, Coraline sighed softly and began heading back to the path. It was muddy, due to the rain that had fallen last night; which had been a blessing, considering that she had been having trouble sleeping and the pitter-patter of rain against the rooftop was like a lullaby. But it was also a curse, because the rain had brought out banana slugs, and she had seen three on her way to the Lovat's. She hadn't had the heart to catch them, though; it didn't feel right to do that without Wybie.  
As she reached the edge of the dirt path, she heard a vehicle coming her way. Two, actually. She paused and looked over to see a white car heading up the hill, followed by a moving van.  
 _"Must be the new neighbors,"_ she thought. As they drove past her, the woman in the car waved with a smile. Coraline waved back, but didn't smile; she didn't feel like it. She wasn't mad at these people... Okay, maybe she was a little, but she knew it was irrational to be mad at them, so she did her best to repress it. But she was just kind of mad in general, so smiling wasn't on the agenda for today.  
The two vehicles parked in front of the house, and Coraline knew it would be best for her to just leave now and go home; she definitely wasn't in the mood for chatting with the people who were going to be inhabiting the house that had brought her many fun memories of watching cheesy horror films and eating homemade cookies that Mrs. Lovat would make. If Wybie wasn't going to be there, she didn't want anyone to be there replacing her memories with ones of their own. She knew it was ridiculous to think that way, but right now she was too angry at the universe to care. Sighing, she made her way back towards the Pink Palace, unaware of the pair of blue eyes that were gazing at her curiously.

* * *

"Well, here we are boys!"  
Margaret Woods's cheerful voice snapped her boys out of their zoned out states, one of them being focused on a handheld video game and the other staring out the window.  
"Home sweet home," she continued, unbuckling her seat belt and stepping out of the car. The boys, Jeffrey and Liu, stepped out as well, looking at their new house. It looked pretty old, but it wasn't falling to pieces or anything, thankfully.  
Their father exited the car and headed over to the now-open moving van, helping with the boxes and furniture. Jeff shot him a glare. He hadn't wanted to move at all, but a friend of the family had sold this place and the nearby apartments to his dad, since they didn't want their inheritance from the previous owner. The boy had already been strangely irritable as of late, but the move only made it worse.  
"So... Kinda cool, huh?" Liu asked with a smile as he looked at the building.  
"I guess so," Jeff answered, forcing a small grin; he couldn't bring himself to kill his little brother's optimism with his own negative feelings, despite a small yet now ever-present part of him that urged him to wipe that smile off his brother's face.  
There were a few seconds of silence, before Liu broke it once more.  
"Maybe we could go say hi to that blue-haired girl," he suggested. "She looks like she's around our age."  
"Ooo, you think she's cute or something?" Jeff teased with a playful grin, earning him a glare from Liu.  
"No I don't! I- I mean, she's not bad-looking or anything, I just think that we might wanna look for some friends here and-"  
Jeff laughed, interrupting his brother's flustered rambling.  
"I'm just messing with you," he said with a grin. "You really shouldn't get embarrassed so easily, kid."  
Before Liu could answer, they heard a "meow" come from just a few feet away from them. They simultaneously looked towards the source of the sound and saw a thin black cat standing nearby, seeming to observe the two of them. Neither boy would admit it, but something about this cat was... Odd. Its eyes seemed... Human-like. Thoughtful. Suspicious of them, even.  
"Hey, buddy," Liu called to the cat, kneeling down; he wasn't sure how to call a cat over, so he just sort of went with it. But the feline just stared at them before heading off into the bushes.  
"Looks like our luck is gonna get even worse," Jeff commented, half-joking. "A black cat crossed our path."  
Little did they know, the cat had gotten a strange vibe from the two of them as well... Well, not from the two of them. From one of them. From Jeff. He wasn't quite sure what it was about that boy, but something about him was off. And not in a good way.


End file.
